For the opening reports, see Warfare 2007 FOG Reports (1) and (2)
Round 3 saw Prince Dimitry facing more, err, knights. And this was after a very hospitable evening spent with the parents of my wargaming colleague Clive Vaughan. Clive’s parents seemed to have this curious view that wargames drank copious amounts of wine and beer and were determined not to disappoint.
The Germans were lead by Tom Elsworth, who is new to FOG. The opening moves saw the following situation develop:
The holy and devout Russians are on the left, the mercenary Germans on the right. Describing the German setup first we have:
1. A large block of pikes and then halberdiers are in the centre.
2. Knights (arghh!!) extend the line to the right of the pikes. The knights are supported by cavalry armed with handguns and crossbow. Tom committed his cavalry early to the fray in an attempt to drive off my Cossacks – the attacking cavalry can be seen in the top-centre of the photo, between the opposing battle lines.
3. The German left is anchored on an enclosed field, populated with light foot handgunners and MF crossbows.
Prince Dimitry has deployed as follows:
1. The Cossacks are on the far left of the Russian line (top of the photo).
2. The Boyars then continue the line and occupy the hill seen in the top left of the photo
3. The Russian infantry hold the centre
4. A unit of Boyars were despatched to skirmish against the pikes and hold them up.
5. The Russian light foot hold the Russian right wing, anchored on some uneven ground.
Prince Dimitry’s plan was to try and overwhelm the German right before the pikes and knights did too much damage. Not a great plan, but the only plan the Prince could come up with whilst suffering from a grating hangover.
Prince Dimitry had a gentle hill in his deployment zone (seen in the top left of the photo) which would neutralise some of the knight's advantage.
As mentioned above, Tom committed his mounted hand gunners and crossbows on his right wing to drive off the Cossacks:
(Apologies for the picture quality, it's been englarged). Fortunately for Prince Dimitry his Cossacks managed to disrupt the mounted crossbows with bow shot and they refused to charge, leaving the unsupported mounted hand gunners with the task of driving off the Cossacks. The Prince ordered the light horse to risk standing up to the hand gunner cavalry because he had the numbers in his favour, although not the factors. This proved successful and the Cossacks eventually broke both the mounted crossbows and the hand gunners.
Meanwhile, in the centre the knights and Boyars faced each other just outside bow range. The knights were reluctant to attack uphill and the Boyars were convinced their orders said HOLD THE HILL, ON NO ACCOUNT COME OFF THE HILL:
Eventually the knights were finally forced to charge and a long but inconclusive tussle occurred on the hill.
Whilst all this posturing was taking place in the centre the German infantry block was remorselessly bearing down on the Russian infantry, sweeping aside the skirmishing Boyars on the Russian right flank. The lines clashed and the Russian infantry, true patriots of Mother Russia, fought outstandingly well, especially the foot archers who were expected to die in great number. The line held and Tom had a difficult choice to make – he had a unit of pikes in hand on the left of the infantry line. Should he commit it to support a unit of cavalry trying to deal with my errant Boyar unit skirmishing on my right wing? In the end Tom wheeled the pikes around to position himself for a flank charge against my spearmen:
Unbeknownst to both of us at the time, this proved to be the wrong decision as the committed pikes and halberdeers were successfully pressurising the Russian spearmen and bowmen (who kept losing the melee but kept rolled spectacular morale dice). Once the errant Boyars on the Prince's right were free of the threat of a pike block smacking into them they managed to rout the cavalry sent to deal with them, leaving them free to charge the same pike block in the rear.
On the Russian extreme right the light troops and German crossbows were inconclusively exchaning missiles:
Although the Russian handgunners, through dint of superior numbers and better dice rolling, did manage to rout a unit of German gunners.
Eventually time was called but Tom’s army was disintegrating. A 21-11 win to Prince Dimitry.
We discussed after the game the German mounted attack on the right – Tom would have been better off with a combined knight/cavalry attack. It’s more risky for me to skirmish against cavalry as they move faster than knights, whilst if the Russians stand up to combat the knights have the better armour and the lancer impact factor.
Click here viewtopic.php?t=4612 to view the final report.
Well done on all accounts.
